The Tasiast mine in Mauritania has been a giant black cloud over Kinross Gold Corp. for years.

The company badly overpaid for Tasiast in 2010, when it spent a staggering US$7.1 billion to buy Red Back Mining Inc. (the mine’s former owner). And since then, there has been a steady stream of bad news, writedowns and uncertainty plaguing Tasiast as Kinross has struggled to put a viable expansion plan in place.

Now there might finally be some positive developments on the horizon. Kinross will announce results from economic studies on Wednesday that contemplate a two-step “phased” approach to expanding gold output at Tasiast. The company has expressed some optimism about these studies in recent months, and investors are keen to see the results.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Kaip said he expects the studies will demonstrate a “constructive step forward” for Tasiast, while “balancing the size and timing of future capital commitments.”

Kaip calculated that Kinross trades at 1.3 times net asset value, which is a major discount to most of its senior gold mining peers. He suspects that part of that discount is due to investor skepticism about Tasiast.

“Demonstration of an economically viable phased development plan could inspire a positive re-rate of (Kinross) shares, in our view,” he said.